Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Joseph tried calling Rafi’s phone. It went straight to voicemail. Don’t be stupid, of course it did, the phone was destroyed along with him, his mind shot back.

The messages on Joseph’s phone were mostly automated alerts about the Tetractys tragedy. It was all over the news and coming in from dozens of different outlets. Rafi had done a very good job of insulating Joseph from the day-to-day operations of the business. Very few people had his private number. There were a dozen or so texts and calls from his personal assistant, Brandy, who Rafi had hired just in case Joseph ever needed anything (she had set up the Paris trip and made all the necessary reservations. She’d also had to reserve and cancel the RV and hotels in Santa Fe in case David had chosen the road trip). Brandy didn’t usually contact Joseph directly, but she was being inundated with calls from the press and the police and the FBI and didn’t know what to do. She had initially tried and failed to contact Mr. Loya (It failed because he’s dead, Joseph’s mind shouted) because she knew Joseph was in Paris, but then the police had informed her that Rafaél Loya was one of the victims of the explosion and she really didn’t know what to do or who she should talk to and could he please, please call her back?

Joseph gave the driver a new address and moments later the car pulled a U-turn on Burbank Boulevard to head east for the 5 freeway. He thought for a moment. He didn’t want to engage with police, that was a bad idea. And certainly not the FBI, that was an extraordinarily bad idea. He made a call to the Tetractys’ chief of corporate security. He instructed him to get Brandy into protective custody and give her a lawyer, and told him to oversee interaction with the authorities, while coordinating with the company’s legal team. That should keep everyone busy for at least a few days.

Joseph had business to attend to.

The apartment door of former Uber driver Bahir Ismat burst inward, tearing off the top hinge. Inside, the air was musty and dark.

“Alexander!” Joseph roared as he strode inside, moving assuredly and with the confidence of rage. He had tracked Alexander and Roxana after their attack on David, but at the time decided not to confront them here in case he needed to find them again. He didn’t want to frighten them from their roost. He assumed he currently had the element of surprise. He was wrong.

Roxana struck the back of Joseph’s knee with a fluid kick and followed through with a gripping strike to the back of the neck. She would have had him face down on the floor if his own martial arts training didn’t have him instantly move with the momentum of the blow, tucking into a forward roll faster than she could follow. He dove forward, pushing off his good leg, and crashed through an old wooden coffee table. Despite the obstruction, he carried the roll to his feet and spun back around to face his attacker.

Foolish, he chided himself. Now he was in an enclosed space with two opponents, and he only knew where one of them was.

Except he didn’t even know that. He should have been able to see Roxana in the light spilling in from the hallway and knew it was her that struck him. The strength of her blow, the sound of her exhale, and, of course, her smell. When her attack failed to incapacitate him, she’d moved quickly and disappeared.

Joseph fixated on his senses. His irises opened to allow more light than a normal human eye and had greater dynamic range, capable of seeing into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. His hearing focused on the room, creating an auditory 3-D map of anything that made the slightest bit of sound. His nose was his best tool. He could see odors. Recent smells looked like trails of color to his olfactory cortex, while older scents dissipated and mingled together to create a general smell for any given place.

The man whose apartment they stole was of similar Middle Eastern descent, but he saw Roxana’s trail and within half a second located her in the room. She blended in, olfactorily speaking. Alexander, on the other hand, stood out like a sore thumb. Whatever things this woman had taught him over the centuries, an abundance of stealth was not one of them.

“Why?” Joseph demanded when it was clear they weren’t immediately going to attack him.

“We considered your proposal, Father, and we’re afraid we will have to decline the offer,” Alexander replied.

The use of the word father made Joseph’s blood boil. Images of Rafaél flashed through his mind. Rafaél as a boy, alone and scared, living in a cardboard box. Rafaél graduating high school as valedictorian. Rafaél making Thanksgiving dinner that only he and Robert would eat. Rafaél at his kitchen counter only days ago.

“Don’t you dare call me that,” Joseph spat. “I had a son. You are not him.”

Alexander feigned surprise with a melodramatic hand to his heart. “Oh my, are you telling me there were people in that building?”

“So you admit it? You blew up my lab?” Joseph said, somewhat shocked. In the world he had occupied for the last hundred years, one did not simply admit to casual terrorism.

“Why not?” Roxana commented. “What will you do, Bavarian? Will you tell the human authorities that your vampire progeny destroyed the blood bank you used to feed yourself?”

“Why, then?” Joseph demanded. “Why did you do it?”

“Why?” Alexander hurled back. “You attacked us, threatened us, demeaned us for a human!”

Joseph’s eyes glowed with pain and rage as he stepped towards the younger vampire. “My son was in that building. You killed him.”

“I am your son!”Alexander screamed with the fury of two hundred years of pent-up resentment. “You made me! You brought me into this new life and then you abandoned me. I might have died if not for Roxana.”

“You were an abomination, and if death is what you seek, I shall give it to you,” Joseph growled.

“No, Bavarian, you will not,” Roxana interjected. “You had the upper hand one time, but we are at full strength now. You could not possibly win against us.”

Joseph’s eyes narrowed threateningly as he shifted his attention to the older and more powerful female vampire. Roxana was one of the most ruthless vampires on the planet. Joseph knew it was part of what drew Alexander to her. Their wanton passion for killing and mutual certainty of human inferiority made them a perfect couple. In a way, Joseph was jealous of their love. It was, if nothing else, true. “I offered you wealth. I offered to take care of you.”

“You offered us half,” she responded coolly. “We want all of it.”

“And you’ll destroy me to get it, I suppose?” Joseph sneered.

“No, no, no, you child. You are important to what you have built. We know that.” Roxana took one slow step forward to demonstrate her lack of fear. “But we will destroy everyone and everything you love.”

Alexander glided forward to join Roxana. “The truth is, we didn’t know your human pet was in the building.” Joseph bristled at the insult to Rafi but made no move. Alexander continued, “We only meant to cut off your food supply to encourage you to embrace your true nature. But … your love for these frail beings is a weakness that has only been illuminated by this.” He gestured at Joseph, simmering in his fury.

Joseph was unable to hide his shock at hearing that Roxana and Alexander had not only learned that he was getting his human blood from donations but somehow tracked the source. He deflected by grasping at the more important tragedy. “Love is not a weakness,” he retorted, though in truth he felt weaker than he had in recent memory, and he knew his odds of winning either a fight or an argument had evaporated.

“No, of course not. After all, it is my queen’s love for me and mine for her that makes us so powerful. But you—” Alexander waved a hand derisively at Joseph “—what you do is a derangement. Should a wolf love a rabbit? It’s unnatural.”

Joseph tensed at the implied threat to David, but then forced himself to relax his posture. If there was a fight here, he would not win it. Talk was needed. Strategy. “If you aren’t trying to kill me, tell me what you want.”

Alexander looked to Roxana, offering the moment to her. She pulled herself to her full height. The pair grinned deviously. “We propose a bargain.”